New World’s Favorite Failson Learns About Kingship in Secret Level S1 E3 Episode

The new episode of Amazon Prime Video’s Secret Level animated series, focusing on New World, is available for streaming. We’ve analyzed it so you can decide if it’s worth watching: though with a seasonal run-time of just 15 minutes, you won’t be missing much. However, you may find it entertaining. Be advised: spoilers are included below!

The third episode, titledS1 E3 – New World: The Once and Future King begins much like New World game, with a nautical vessel sailing towards Aeternum and subsequently sinking. Viewers will follow a muscular yet unsuccessful king—voiced by Arnold Schwarzenegger—on his adventure through Aeternum. It’s not long before his ineptitude leads to his demise, an outcome you may find agreeable.

As you may know from previous episode previews or MMORPG familiarity, inhabitants of Aeternum don’t truly die, but merely experience setbacks. Even the bungling prince, who doesn’t prove dextrous at anything, isn’t spared from this peculiarity. The narrative follows him as he attempts to overtake the reigning monarch, gets defeated and resurrected five times, then falls another four times (on and off-screen) while exploring sorcery for an advantage. His perception of kingship changes when he learns that mere possession of a crown doesn’t make one a king.

Counting his arrival on the shore, King Failson dies at least 11 times.

Despite the overall poor reception of Secret Level prior to its release, I found this episode surprisingly enjoyable, with an amusement factor that falls short of side-splitting hilarity. The animation quality is comparable to well-executed video game cinematics. Besides reveling in King Failson’s comeuppance, I also appreciated Amazon’s binding of several MMORPG mechanics into the narrative, making it enjoyable even for non-gamers.

If you’re an existing New World player, you’ll recognize several characters (including Aelstrom) as NPCs within the game. This episode provides some backstory to these characters, which I found to be a thoughtful addition.

It’s noteworthy that New World players with Prime membership can claim complimentary in-game items to commemorate the release, including the complete Corrupted King armor and a Great Axe weapon skin as part of Aelstrom’s Cache from Prime Gaming.

All eight episodes of Secret Level are now available on Amazon Prime Video.